Press conference - Brisbane

SHAYNE NEUMANN, FEDERAL MEMBER FOR BLAIR: Good morning. I’m Shayne Neumann, the Federal Member for Blair. Welcome here to Goodstart in Collingwood Park, the early learning centre. I’m delighted that you’ve come here today. I’m really happy that my friend and colleague Minister Jess Walsh is here and, of course, my mate from the Gold Coast, John-Paul Langbroek, the Minister for Education, has come along for a great announcement here in Queensland. And Ipswich is a very, very fast-growing area and a very young population. And, Ros, to you and Goodstart, thank you very much for having me back again. Last time I was here, I learnt all about construction. And if you’re living in Ipswich, construction of houses is very, very important. But making sure our young people have great access to good education, whether it’s at universities like University of Southern Queensland in Springfield and Ipswich, but also early learning. And we’ve got a primary school down the road where a lot of these kids will go, to Woodlinks, a state primary school, but they need the kind of education that will give them the best start in life. So, whether it’s the 9,000 families that have benefited from the early child care and education reforms that we did with thousands of dollars more in their pocket or, indeed, the 3 Day Guarantee, we are building, making sure the Albanese Labor government is investing and partnering with the states and investing in places like Goodstart and others to make sure our young people get the best start in life. And I’ll hand it over to my friend and colleague Jess to talk more about the announcement.

JESS WALSH, MINISTER FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION: Thank you so much Shayne for welcoming me to your electorate of Blair. It’s really fantastic to be here today with my friend and colleague in the Queensland state government, JP Langbroek, here at Goodstart Early Learning Collingwood Park. We want to build more quality not-for-profit early learning services just like this one around Queensland. And that’s why we’re announcing today a historic partnership between the Commonwealth and State governments. This partnership is part of our $1 billion Building Early Education Fund. And today, with our partners in Queensland, we’re announcing a $50 million investment in more quality not-for-profit early learning around the state. We’ll be building together five brand new services co-located with schools in outer suburban and regional Queensland. We know that quality early childhood education gives children a great start in life and it helps families thrive. But we also know that there are underserved parts of the country, including in our outer suburbs and regions. That’s why we are implementing our $1 billion Building Early Education Fund. It’s why we’re committing $50 million to work together with Queensland and build five new services in outer suburban and regional locations. It’s really important to us that we’ve been able to partner with the Queensland Government to deliver these commitments. The services will be co-located with schools. That is great for children. It helps them see the big school up the road, and it helps them with a smooth transition to school and all the opportunity that education brings. It’s also great for families. Families know all too well the pressures of the double drop-off, and co-locating services with schools allows parents to have a one-stop drop. We’re really proud about this $50 million announcement: five services, outer suburban and regional locations, co-located with schools, helping children get a great start in life and helping families thrive. And very pleased to have been able to work on this with the Queensland Education Minister, JP Langbroek, who we’ll hear from now.

JOHN-PAUL LANGBROEK, QUEENSLAND MINISTER FOR EDUCATION : Well, thanks, Jess. Look, it’s great to be here with Shayne Neumann, of course, who’s the local member here for Blair, and the Minister, Jess Walsh. And we’ve worked very closely together with the Education Ministers' meetings. I want to thank Ros Baxter as well from Goodstart for being here. And Sanja, who’s our local manager of this early childhood centre. Well, this is what delivery looks like. And to partner with the Federal Government is something that the State Government, the Crisafulli Government, wants to thank the Federal Government for this partnership that we see here. Early childhood education and care is so important, and especially in rural and regional Queensland where there are families who need this sort of support, and that’s why, as Minister Walsh has said, whether you’re in Yarrabilba, whether you’re in Chinchilla, whether you’re in Clermont, whether you’re in Rosewood or in Far North Queensland, we want over 350 families to get the same access to early childhood education and care. And this supplements what we’ve been doing in the State Government, which is all about our workforce strategy, making sure that we work in child safety, but also Kindy Uplift and Free Kindy, which has seen 65,000 children in kindy, up from 60,000, due to us extending Free Kindy. So, it’s really great to see here, to be here to see the kids in action, to see the early childhood educators working so caringly. And, as I say, we’re looking forward to having the extension of these five centres into those areas that I’ve already mentioned that we know is going to make such a big difference for the early childhood years. To have them either on state school sites or nearby is also very important, as Minister Walsh has said, because we know that it means that the transition from early childhood into school is that much easier. And we really want to grow our state school system, especially in those areas where they may not have the other choice or the choice of other non-state school providers. I think I’ll hand over to Ros Baxter now, and then happy to come back and answer questions.

ROS BAXTER, GOODSTART EARLY LEARNING CEO: Thanks, Ministers. And welcome, everyone, to Goodstart Collingwood Park. I’m Ros Baxter, I’m the CEO of Goodstart Early Learning. We’re the country’s largest provider of early learning, and as a not-for-profit, a charity, we’re also one of those providers who contribute every dollar we earn back into children and their outcomes. It’s why it’s so exciting to welcome this partnership today between the Federal Government and the Queensland Government here to build these new early learning centres. We know that not-for-profit early learning provides great outcomes for children. The ACCC data tells us that not-for-profit services are more likely to provide a high-quality service for children, they’re more likely to keep their staff, and they’re more likely to provide safe and high-quality educational outcomes. So, it’s a great investment from both governments. Thank you. We really want to welcome this $50 million from the Federal Government. We’re looking forward to talking to the Queensland Government about potential to partner on these sites. And I just want to, before I finish, acknowledge Sanja and her team here at Collingwood Park and the great work they do every day with the children. Thank you.

NEUMANN: We’re happy to answer any questions. The ones that we’ll be doing will be in Rosewood in my electorate here in Blair. So that’s why we’re here today to make this announcement. We’re happy to answer any questions.

JOURNALIST: Just a question for Minister Langbroek. The number of children enrolled in kindy is growing year on year, like you said as well. Is this going to help accommodate that?

LANGBROEK: Yes, well, it’s adding another 352 spots, four at 75 each and one at 52. And so, of course, the more students, the more children that we get into early childhood education and care, is so important. Our number’s now at nearly 65,000, up from 60,000 just a couple of years ago, due to the Crisafulli Government's extension of Free Kindy.

JOURNALIST: More parents are deciding to keep their kids in kindy for longer due to, you know, a widening gap in social and emotional regulation. Do you think that this will help, you know, facilitate that transition into school from kindy?

LANGBROEK: Well, look, the important thing is that we make sure that our early childhood educators are the best assessors of whether children are emotionally ready. And this can be a very difficult issue for parents, of course, to face some of these decisions – are their children ready to go on into prep? And that’s why it’s really important to have the early childhood educators who are the best at assessing that. We’re confident that adding more spaces, more places in far-flung areas of Queensland, rural and regional Queensland, where they haven’t been able to get these services before, means that we’ll have better ways of assessing those students.

JOURNALIST: And can I just ask a question of Minister Walsh as well? Is there a particular reason why this partnership is happening with Queensland? Is it going to happen with other states around Australia?

WALSH: This is the fifth agreement that we’ve struck with the States and Territories. We’ve already entered into agreements with other jurisdictions, and we’re really pleased to conclude this agreement with Queensland – a $50 million investment, five new services in the outer suburbs and regions, co-located with schools, 350 places. It’s a great investment in the children and families of Queensland.